I Got You
by SecretChances
Summary: The Pajama Game When you need a place to run, for better or worse, I got you...Mabel/Sid


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. You no sue. _The Pajama Game_ belongs to it's writers and actors and producers. _I Got You_ belongs to Leona Lewis. I am merely borrowing for the sake of entertainment and for the sake of my cast and crew for our production of the play.

**A/N:** This is NOT based on the movie with Doris Day. This is based off of the play and is written to fit our cast. So, in light of that, some of the characters may be a little off simply because I'm basing them off of the performances of my friends. :D Anyway, hope you enjoy! Also this happens after Sid fires Babe :D

**Pairing:** Mabel/Sid

**Summary:** When you need a place to run, for better or worse, I got you...

* * *

He sat down in Mabel's chair with a huff and ran his fingers through his short brown hair. To Hell with Mr. Hassler. To Hell with Vernon Hines and to Hell with Katherine Williams. He sighed. Babe. What a woman. What a sexy, incredible, gorgeous woman. He couldn't get her smile out of his head. He couldn't forget the feel of her lips on his but what had all that touching and kissing and love gotten him? A short fuse and a short trip into the arms of another woman. Gladys was great, there was no denying that. She was a little ditsy, a little emotional and a little bit of an alcoholic but so were half of the employees of SleepTite pajama factory. She made him feel alive for the moment while Babe was fighting the good fight. Damn sides and damn Hassler.

He sighed again and buried his head in his arms. The past couple of days had been horrible. Why had he fired Babe? Was it really because she messed with company equipment? Was it really because she had chosen sides? Was it because he didn't want everyone to know he loved her? He tossed that idea around in his mind. Was he scared? He couldn't figure out why he would be. Babe was his everything unless...he sat straight up and heard a frightened gasp behind him.

He whirled around to lock gazes with Mabel, SleepTite's resident front office secretary. A small, pale hand fluttered up to land on her chest. Looking at her, Sid Sorokin felt a pang of guilt. He didn't mean to frighten her. He didn't even know she was still there. Most of the employees had left after he had fired Babe, Gladys included. Hassler had let them go. Hines was going nuts but he, Prez and Hassler had to have a little talk. Not that it would make any difference. Thinking on it, he should have been in the meeting but his mind was elsewhere.

"Sid, honey, are you okay?"

He nodded and turned back around. She walked to Gladys' desk and sat down. The rustling of papers caught his attention and he looked at her once again. He wasn't sure if it was because of his mental state or the fact Babe was gone, but when he looked at her it felt as if he was seeing her for the first time. As cliched as that was, it was true. He noticed the sparkle in her brown eyes, the way her short brown hair was curled perfectly, not one hair out of place. She pulled off the color gold perfectly and her pale face was gorgeous in a way Babe's wasn't. He wasn't sure what made it so special but it was.

"Are you mad?" He asked suddenly.

She stopped organizing her paperwork and smiled. "At you?" she shook he head. "No."

He turned around once again placing his chin on the palms of his hands. "You should be."

He could feel her eyes on the back of his head. She always knew how to give a good reprimanding stare. She _was_ a mother figure to most of the girls after all.

"Sid, it was Babe who chose to violate the rules."

"But should I have fired her?"

She stopped again, her face scrunched up in thought. "Honestly? No."

He blinked. "Why?"

"Because you didn't fire her because of the rules."

That statement hit him square in the chest. Even she had noticed it! It wasn't _just_him who realized that he had maybe been too hasty in letting the firery, raven haired, grievance committee head go from the company. He groaned collapsing even further into Mabel's chair. He pinched the bridge of his nose and kicked his feet up on the desk. Mabel cleared her throat causing him to jump. He looked at her silently asking her what that was for. She nodded at his feet.

"Oh sorry."

He quickly swung his legs back under him. She grinned and went on about her paper work. He watched her intently, deciding if he wanted to bother her again. She pulled out a pair of horn rimmed glasses and slipped them daintily onto the tip of her nose. Since when did she wear glasses?

"You want to know what I think?" She asked, not looking up from her work. When he didn't answer, she continued, "I think you're scared."

He stared at her incredulously. "Excuse me?"

"Babe is a one of a kind girl. Even _I_ know that. But you're scared to admit you like her."

"I beg your--"

"I'm not finished," she snapped finally meeting his gaze. "You fired her because you didn't want anyone to know you've fallen in love with her."

He blinked, stunned. How could she have known what was going on with him and Babe? She wasn't that intent on the factory worker's lives. She spent most of her days in the office rather than down with the girls. It was impossible to have known they were a couple. Not that they were any more. In the end, she had chosen to fight against him. His stomach lurched making him feel sick. If he kept thinking about her, he wouldn't get out of the rut of depression or whatever he was going through. He had bigger things to focus on—not that he could think of anything right now. His mind was preoccupied and it certainly wasn't preoccupied with the meeting right down the hall.

He was about to get up to leave when a thought flitted across his mind. "Why are you still here?"

"I'm a time honor woman," she said, referencing one of Vernon Hines' most annoying sayings ever. "I have to get recommendations up to Hassler by morning. We need a new head of the grievance committee you know? Plus, I have to hire two new girls. The ones who got in a fight a few weeks ago? Hassler let them go."

She resumed her work, the type writer clicking furiously. Her fingers stretched and danced over the keys.

"Mabel?"

They stopped. "Yes, Sid?"

"How did you end up here?"

She pushed herself out from under the desk and leaned back, placing her hands behind her head.

"I moved here."

"From where?"

"New York. I knew I wasn't a city girl. I came here to be a nurse. Then I found out I can't stand blood."

Sid laughed for the first time in a while. The sound was foreign to him and to Mabel who was caught off guard. It was her turn to see him for the first time. The way he looked like the world was on his shoulders and how things were so different now than when he first came here. He lit up the factory after Babe accepted him with open arms. Now, she noticed the girls were down and he wasn't as spunky as he once was. It was sad. She blinked. She cared? Well, she thought, they don't call me mama Mable for nothing. She sighed and glanced him over. Now that she thought about it, he was always cute and she always cared. If she admitted it to herself, she had noticed the way his hair fell in front of his face when he was deep in thought or stressed about the girls. More than once, she knew she had caught herself staring but he hadn't paid any attention.

"And you ended up here?" He asked, pulling her back to the present.

"I did. It wasn't easy. I had to learn how to answer phones and handle a load of estrogen but the guys who work here are sweet and a welcome relief."

"You mean they're cute." He quirked an eyebrow in her direction.

She blushed. "Listen, I've gone through my share of guys. Some were drunken reprobates and others were womanizers."

"You dated Prez?"

"Oh God, no!" She exclaimed, her already red face flushing seven different shades of the same color. "I came here before Prez did. I never liked him before and I don't like him now. He's nice but he takes advantage of Mae. It's sad."

He got up from behind the desk he was at and sat down on hers. The proximity between them made his skin tingle. Had anyone came in at that moment, he would've guessed they would have felt the electricity crackling in the air. All at the same time, things began making sense. _Don't think it hasn't been mentioned._ He shivered, the thought making feelings arise in the pit of his stomach where self-pity had been before.

"Say Mabel?"

"Yes, Sid?" She sat up and resumed her typing avoiding his sad eyes and intense stare.

"Why don't we get out of here? I need a stiff drink and nice shoulder to cry on." He leaned in closer to her.

"Sid, I don't think--"He grabbed her elbow and pulled her up out of the chair, their faces inches from each other. "What about Babe?" She asked, her voice small.

He shrugged. After a moment, he said, "You know, her is the sweetest arms to run to."

She smiled. "I think know of a place where we can go get lost in the booze and the atmosphere."

His hand trailed languidly down her arm before their fingers entwined. She went about the motions of closing up the office with him by her side. Paperwork was filed, Gladys' desk was cleaned up, and afterward, Mabel felt good about her late night work. She didn't get anything done but she'd come in in the morning and get what Hassler wanted to him before she would even drink her first cup of coffee. That much she knew. Sid would be back to running things and before they would notice, things at SleepTite would be back to normal. In the back of his head, however, the ebony skinned, raven haired, former grievance committee head Katherine "Babe" Williams still assaulted his memories. Tonight, if anything happened, he would be screaming Babe's name instead of Mabel's in a man moment that could only happen to Prez.

Regardless of how it would all end up, Mabel grabbed her jacket, her hand still grasping Sid's, and switched off the lights. For a brief second she considered grabbing him and kissing him but she decided against it. Instead, she let go of his hand and snaked her arm around his sagging shoulders—the shoulders which now held the weight of the world.

As they walked out of the office and she locked the door, she whispered, "Don't worry Sid, I got you."

A ghost of a smile appeared on his shadowed face.


End file.
